


maybe listen to a song and make something out of it?

by SummerHours



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Boredom, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Kind of a songfic, light teen angst, luka finally doing something self-indulgent sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerHours/pseuds/SummerHours
Summary: Marinette is terribly busy, and yet she was terribly bored too. Luka notices how off she feels and offers some advice.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I put songfic (sort of) in the tags because I heard this song yesterday on a "today's hits" playlist on spotify and was inspired to write lol. It's similar in theme I guess, I also just wanted to write some fluff for once. I also wrote this kind of quickly so excuse any errors.
> 
> The link to the song is under the fic.

Marinette was terribly busy, and boy did she know it. She always just barely finished school work in time after night patrol shifts as Ladybug, and she lost an awful lot of sleep staying up to do just that. Her relationship with Luka had just begun and she was indescribably grateful for his happiness spending most of their dates as more or less study dates. 

Of course, she wanted to go out to movies, like they had done for one of their first dates, and go out to parks, get ice cream, all of her date fantasies, but she just couldn’t. As long as Luka was still satisfied with it, she was enjoying his cuddles while she struggled with math homework and whatnot. She especially enjoyed it when she’d groan at a particularly confusing problem and he’d offer to help. The way his face scrunched up when he would read it and inevitably understand it even less than she did never failed to make her giggle. 

So Marinette was terribly busy, and yet she was terribly bored too. When Luka couldn’t come over she would find herself spacing out while staring at her textbooks and unfinished essays. On patrols and even while fighting some of the less threatening akumas she would swing about, wishing she still had a rush from soaring through the air like that. She couldn’t figure out why she felt so… empty most of the time. 

“Marinette? You there?” Her father’s voice drifting into her ear, its concerned tone sticking to her brain like glue. She tried to dislodge it by shaking her head, she looked up at her dad inquisitively.

“Yeah, why?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, “you were just sort of staring off.”

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about schoolwork and stuff.” It wasn’t really a lie.

He hummed, “don’t overwork yourself Mari.”

She nodded, returning her attention to her breakfast. She finished it off with a quick swallow and smiled up at her father again. “Well speaking of school, I ought to get going! See you later!”

“Have a good day!” He called after her as she rushed out of the bakery, she could still hear his concern bleeding into his voice.

“You too!” The door snapped shut behind her and she began walking. She was staring ahead of her but she wasn’t really looking.

She didn’t hear the gentle squeak of wheels behind her, she just barely heard the voice that joined it, “hey little lady...” it teased, “need a ride?” She didn’t respond, it sounded so distant she assumed it was referring to someone else. 

Luka rolled forward, moving at just about the same speed as her. His goofy smile immediately dropped to a frown. His girl was usually so hyper attentive she was jumpy. Her song had dulled significantly, it wasn’t sad or angry just… dull. He quickly grew worried, her eyes almost looked glossed over as they just reflected the sidewalk in front of her.

“Hey Marinette?” She looked at him then, her face immediately lighting up.

“Luka! Hey!” His worry didn’t fade but he was at least glad her melody had cheered a little, he was very proud of himself for such a reaction. He stopped his bike and kicked down its stand, jumping off to wrap her in his arms. She giggled, “what’s up?”

He hummed into her hair, “I’m good, are you though? How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” she laughed. 

He pulled away from the hug but didn’t let her go, “you seemed pretty out of it a moment ago.” She looked to the side, the giggle that followed sounding more nervous than its predecessors. “What’s wrong mélodie?” His hand cupped her cheek, “tell me what’s going on?”

“We’re going to be late to school...” He rolled his eyes at the excuse and returned to his bike, patting the room behind him. She climbed on, clipping on a helmet and holding on tight, resting her cheek on his shoulder. He started pedaling again and she decided to talk to him, _he might understand_ , she thought. “I guess I have felt a little… out of it lately.” She admitted, “I don’t know why. I have a lot of stuff to do but I just feel... bored? I guess.” 

He gently pressed his cheek against her head. “Well what’s all the stuff you’re doing?”

She paused to develop the list, obviously she couldn’t mention the patrols… “I- just so much school work and helping out my parents and stuff like that.” It didn’t seem like so much when she said it like that, she started to feel a little embarrassed.

“Aw ‘Nette, have you designed anything recently?”

She shook her head, “no, I haven’t really had time to... get inspired I guess?”

The bike stopped and she realized they were at her school, she climbed off of the bike and turned to Luka. “Well you know, no matter how many responsibilities I have I usually start to feel burnt out and bored if I haven’t written any music in a while.” He squeezed her shoulder affectionately, “it isn’t always a matter of having stuff to do but what it is that you’re doing. You’re a creative person Marinette, and when you don’t create you're going against your very nature. So, that’s my guess as to why you’re probably feeling a little off.” His warm smile and sweet words were practically begging her to kiss him, so, of course, she did. She held his face as her lips collided with his, trying her best to show her appreciation for him. When she pulled away his smile had gone dopey and his eyes were a tad glazed over. His lips were rapidly darkening as his blood rushed to them.

She ruffled his hair with a giggle, “now you’re going to be late to school!” Before he took off she gave him one more kiss, this one on the cheek. “Thank you for always being so wonderful, I will repay you for everything someday.”

“You know how I said I get burnt out without music to write?” She nodded, he turned to her with a smirk. “Who do you think inspires all that music?” And with that he rode off. She stared after him, _how did he always manage to get the last word in like that??_ It wasn’t until Alya was pulled her arm towards the school entrance and complaining that they were going to be late to class that she finally snapped out of it.

“Sorry!”

~-~-~-~-~-~

Her school day was typical, she mentally thanked her history teacher for not assigning a textbook chapter for once as she walked out of the school. She spotted Luka and walked directly toward him. “How is it that you start school later than me AND leave school earlier than me?”

“I don’t.” He answered simply, “but Mme. Bere was out sick today so I have a free period.” He smiled at her like he knew something she didn’t, “also I was late today.”

Her jaw dropped as she gaped at him. “Luka!” He chuckled at the incoming onslaught, “are you late every day!? Don’t give me a ride to school then! Are you in trouble? Why would you do that!?”

He gave her a hug, “Marinette, I am not late everyday I was just particularly… distracted today and biked a little slower than usual. Also a little tardiness won’t keep me from you, you should know that by now.” He kissed her nose but her pout remained.

“You didn’t answer my question.” She crossed her arms, “are you in trouble now?”

“Nope!” He boarded his bike, “my first period teacher is chill, he doesn’t mind if we’re a few minutes late.” She rolled her eyes and climbed on behind him. “Also I was thinking about your dilemma in school today and I thought it might be helpful if you had a prompt list? Like things to design, you know? So me and some friends spent lunch writing up a little list for you. Honestly most of them are probably useless, my friends can be a little… incompetent… but some of them might be at least interesting? I don’t know. I figured why not.”

“Aw Luka! That’s too sweet of you.” It really was, she tried to show him how happy it made her by squeezing him. “I hadn’t even thought of something like that, I’m sure it will be super helpful!”

“You haven’t seen it yet,” he laughed darkly, “one of my friends is a bit of a nutjob so you can credit him for most of the batshit ones.” He stopped in front of the bakery, opening his back as she got off of the bike. He tore a page from a notebook and handed it to her. “I’m excited to see what you make next.” She could still feel his smile when he kissed her, “unfortunately I do have one last class to get to though so I’ll see you later?”

She nodded excitedly and he sped off back the way he came. 

“Someone looks happy,” her mother commented as she ran into the bakery and started up the stairs. “That boy is very sweet.”

She giggled, “you don’t even know Maman! He’s the best!” She could still hear her parents laughing when she reached her room. She rushed to her desk and began inspecting the prompt list. 

Some of them were really interesting, she recognized Luka’s handwriting for most of those. There were also some really dumb ones practically written in wingdings like _A dress thats a shirt but is actually a dress_ or _Australia pants._ “What does that even mean??” 

Marinette chose to focus on Luka’s prompts, skipping to the ones she could tell he wrote. 

_Take two completely different fabrics and make them work together_

_A dress that’s loose at the top but tight at the bottom (idk I feel like I see a lot of dress with tight top halves and loose bottom halves)_

_Teal and red (I really like this color combo and I feel like I never see it)_

_Combine styles from two different eras, like Victorian England + 1920s America??_

She chuckled at the last one he wrote, he was clearly trying to let music take over the list: _maybe listen to a song and design a piece based on it?_ It wasn’t a bad idea, it gave her a little more wiggle room than most of the others. She also really liked a suggestion one of his friends had written: _modern adaptations of disney princess dresses._ But that felt more like a line of clothes than a quick solo project, she decided to tackle it after she warmed back up again. 

She opened the folder on her computer titled “Luka Demos,” and started playing them, quickly pulling on her headphones. The ones she knew were about her make her heart bounce in tempo but she knew she wouldn’t use one of them as her inspiration. She scrolled through the list and stopped at one title she had forgotten about, it was the 4th song he had sent to her. It was more experimental than a lot of his other ones and he was more hesitant to show it to her. When he sent it he sent another two with it and asked her more about those ones. It was one of those songs that she didn’t really love at first but something about it was calling to her at that moment. She hovered over the title _Leave Me to Grow_ , she couldn’t even recall what it was about when she clicked on it. 

A somber bass line quietly crawled into her headphones from the left before settling in the middle, she really adored how Luka mixed his music. When the guitar came in she could tell he was playing without a pic, the edges of each note seemed fuzzy and they blurred together seamlessly. Before he sang a word there were gentle arpeggios and light drumming building a melancholy soundscape in her mind. She closed her eyes and listened as she felt the song. His voice came in smoothly, it was clean and soft. It wasn’t until a few lyrics in that she started noticing what he was saying. Beneath the sweet melody were bitter words, he was scolding someone for narcissism but he didn’t sound remotely angry. He didn’t sound sad either, as she listened more intently she realized the music itself wasn’t sad either. It was just pensive, it sounded indifferent almost. The chorus, which she had previously thought too slow and simplistic for her taste struck her like lightning.

_Leave me to grow_

_Leave me to grow_

_Leave me to grow_

_And I’ll take your place at home_

She immediately reprimanded herself for having overlooked this song before, she must not have been paying enough attention to it when she listened before. Now she sat, covered in goosebumps. She quickly paused the song to regain her mental footing. The lyrics _were_ simple, the music around them _was_ simple, but it’s nakedness made the meaning of the words punch her in the face with their bluntness. It wasn’t a metaphor. She quickly unpaused the song and continued. The was an absolutely gorgeous musical interlude before he started singing again, his voice a little more rugged than before. He was still talking to the same person but now he was talking about someone else. One of the notes in the melody had gone flat, it was ugly and it stuck out from the song but it was clearly intentional. His voice was growing more erratic as he approached the chorus again. This time where he had sung each line of the repetitive chorus the same, now he ended with each grow on a higher note, cutting through the thick music. There was a lot more happening in the instrumental too and grew louder and more busy over the bridge. She felt her eyes growing teary as this wall of sound he built made her feel like she was breaking down in the most beautiful way. He sang _Leave me to grow_ one last time, his voice soared over the music like one of its wings was broken, like every note it moved across caused it more pain. And then the music stopped, like he was whispering in her right ear he finished the song by quietly singing _I’ll take your place._

When she pulled off her headphones she realized she was completely crying but she didn’t care. She knew what the song meant now and it grabbed and yanked at her heartstrings like one of those pacifist pinatas. On top of it all she felt incredibly guilty for never having focused on the song more and for falling for his distractions with the other two songs when he first sent it. She always knew Luka was the time to brush aside his own pain in favor of helping those he loved. This song was the first glimpse into that pain he hid so well. She immediately pressed play again and opened to a new page in her sketchbook. She had no idea what to do but she could figure something out while she listened to the song on repeat another 5 million times.

Inspired by the song [Jane Doe.](https://open.spotify.com/track/0jAEugPR25Cw6KgVbHADGy?si=9df73247b2884a37)


	2. ok so I couldn't stop myself and now there's another chaper, oops

Marinette wasn't sure if she was on the 3822 or the 3823 when she jumped at the sudden distant ringing of her phone. She paused the song and slipped off her headphones, when she realized Luka was calling she picked up without thinking.

"I'm so sorry Luka!" She quickly set her phone against her computer screen and starting dramatically apologizing to him.

He was terribly confused. "Marinette? What's wrong??" He sounded just about as worried as he looked.

"I'm so sorry for never paying attention to your song! I'm so stupid and- and- inconsiderate! And-"

"Stop that." He turned away from the camera and shouted something she couldn't quite make out, "I'll be there in a few." And he was gone.

"Oh NO!" Marinette howled to herself. "He's going to come here and break up with me!!" She heard Tikki buzzing toward her but before the kwami could say anything Marinette sat up in her chair and shook her head. "What am I saying?" She giggled, "this is Luka! He's like the most empathetic person on the planet!"

"Exactly Marinette." Tikki crossed her arm nubs confidently.

"He wouldn't break up with me if he wanted to!" Tikki watched her face fall but it was too late to pick it back up, "maybe he  _ wants _ to but he won't!? And I'll just be stuck THINKING he LOVES me when he DOESN'T!"

"Uh, yes I do?" Marinette whipped around to see Luka's head and shoulders slowly emerging from her hatch door.

"Luka! How- how much di-"

"Marinette I love you." He smiled warmly as he walked up to her, wrapping his arms around her and trapping the back of her chair between them. He pressed a kiss against her bright red cheek, "nothing you can do to change that, so sorry! Unless you want me to leave you won't be getting rid of me so easy."

She leaned back into his touch, the plastic back of her chair becoming increasingly bothersome before shooting and spinning around to face him. "Wait you hadn't said that yet!"

"Didn't know I had to," he chuckled, "I thought I made it pretty obvious."

"Well... well I love you too you know!"

His head fell as he laughed, "you don't have to- whatever you're adorable." She smiled pridefully. He sat on the ground in front of her, crossing his arms on top of her knees and looking up at her expectantly. "So what's got you all upset My-My-Marinette?"

She exhaled quickly and avoided his eyes. "Well I was reading over your prompt list -- which was very helpful by the way, thank you so much! -- anyway I was reading the list and I really liked your last suggestion about listening to a song and all? So I decided to listen through a bunch of your demos and I sort of rediscovered this one and i feel really bad because it's really meaningful and I never gave it the attention it deserves and I'm such a terrible girlfriend!"

"How could you be a terrible girlfriend for relistening to my music and realizing you like something more on the second listen? You know, that's super common in music. A lot of people won't really like a song at first but then they grow to love when they hear it more." She nodded, still looking disappointed in herself. "What song was it anyway?"

“It was… uhmm...” She feigned ignorance like she hadn’t just been staring at the title for hours and turned back toward her computer. “Leave… um ‘Leave me to grow’?” She turned back to him just in time to catch his lips pressing together.

“Oh.” Now it was his eyes evading contact.

“It’s a beautiful song, Luka.” She brushed his hair off of his forehead, “I can… I can feel it just listening to it and I know that it’s probably not something you like to talk about a lot which makes it more powerful.” She cupped his face and angled it toward her so she could look him in the eyes when she whispered out the last part. “It’s very brave of you to put something so sensitive in your art, and you did it in the perfect way. The song is brilliant on its own and the meaning adds so much depth and purpose… Luka it’s a masterpiece. You’re… You’re more amazing than you give yourself credit for!”

When he smiled she could see the corners of his lips being yanked up and down by his clashing emotions. “Thank you Marinette.” His voice was shaky, like he had finished his statement just before it gave out. He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch as he breathed slowly. Marinette climbed out of her chair and sat on the floor beside him, holding as much of him as she could.

She scooped him up and walked him over to her chaise. They adjusted a little, eventually cuddling so that she laid on her back and he laid on his stomach, his head resting on her chest. She absentmindedly played with his hair and rubbed his back. He wasn’t quite crying but he was laying very still and breathing slowly. She kissed his hair and whispered as she leaned back, “I’m sorry Luka...”

He shook his head, the action doubling as him nuzzling into her chest. “Please don’t be. I’m just… I’m not used to… this is just a bit out of my comfort zone.” He chuckled at the phrasing. “And I did send it to you after all, it would be pretty backwards of me to be upset with you for something I asked you for. I guess I had just sort of forgotten about it so it caught me a little off guard.” He opened his eyes to gaze up at her, his smile was less strained than it had been before. “I’m also really flattered that you like it.”

“‘Like it’ I love it! I love the way it builds, how it starts relatively simple but then there’s more in the second chorus and it all overlaps for the bridge and your voice sounds so perfect for it I love how you got louder and more purposeful as the long went on and the lyrics were so clever but not too out there like the message was super clear you know but it was so well written and the ending is so perfect it gave me goosebumps like 3000 times or something like that.” 

He had been beaming at her the entire time but the last sentence caused his eyes to blow wide, “3000???” She looked like a deer in headlights, her nervous giggling quickly interjecting and interrupting her string of ‘um’s, ‘well I…’s, and ‘uhhhhhh’s. He squeezed her against him. “How do you manage to get cuter and cuter all the time?”

“What do you mean??? What did I do??” He released her only to crawl up her body and kiss her with all the adoration he had. Softly pressing his lips to hers as he cradled her, before adding more pressure in an attempt to convey how his heart had exploded moments ago when she gushed about his song, the one song he was most insecure about, the one song he had shown nobody but her.

Her blush reinstated some of his confidence after he pulled away, unable to resist planting another quick kiss before moving to sit up on the chaise. “After 3000 listens I would hope you were at least somewhat inspired to design,” he chuckled, “that would be quite the failure on my part, wouldn’t it?”

Her eyes lit up as she jumped off of the chaise and ran toward her desk, hurrying back as fast as she left with her sketchbook in hand. She sat beside him, his arm quickly curling around her and pulling her close. Before she could even explain what he was looking at Luka couldn’t stop the soft ‘wow’ that instantly fell from his lips. “Well the song is rather dark sounding, especially those moments where you had a flat note in the melody, but there are some tinges of light here and there like those notes in the chorus. Maybe it’s just because they’re high pitched but I don’t know they just sound bright to me, so that why the color scheme is mostly that dark teal with the small notes of black on the straps and and the seams, because those really dark moments are kind of what hold up the song, you know? But that’s also why there are those bright blue flares under the skirt, they’re kind of hard to see but I like how they pop when you notice them.” She continued to describe how different details from the song inspired different details of her design, like how “since the song is never the same, like it constantly changed and grew, I made the dress somewhat asymmetrical, like the left strap is off the shoulder but the right one’s on.” Luka was in complete awe. 

Her attention breakdown of his song was flattering in more ways than he could explain and as if her simply talking about it was compliment enough she kept dropping little praises between sentences too. When she finished explaining her gorgeous design she looked at him curiously. 

“So… do you like it?”

He looked like she was insane before slamming his lips into hers. Kissing her with all of the ferocity and passion he had felt listening to her talk. It felt great. And then she reciprocated, and it was otherworldly. She kissed him back like she could never get enough, wrapping arms around his body and pulling him to her as tightly as she could.

Of course, that’s when her mom peaked out of the hatch to her room. “Oh! Sorry to interrupt!” The couple broke away and stared at her with faces pinker than Marinette’s room. Just as nonchalantly as usual her mother asked if Luka was staying for dinner. He sheepishly nodded and her mother left. What the hell.

Marinette started cackling, rubbing her face like she could wipe off her blush. Luka joined in a little later, still recovering from the shock.

Once they had cooled a little he held Marinette in a soft yet tight embrace. “Yeah,” He whispered, “I love it. How could I not?” She giggled and Luka couldn’t quite tell if she was still laughing about her mom.

“Well thank you for finally being  _ my _ muse for once.”

He hummed into her hair affectionately, “now that I know how nice it feels I’m going to tell you about how much you inspire me even more!”

“NO!” He started darkly laughing into her shoulder. “Please don’t Luka! I’ll never be able to catch up!” He was laughing so hard that he was shaking them both, “stopppp” he could hear the giggle in her voice too, “Luka stoppp! It’s not funnyyyy.” Eventually he looked up at her and noticed her comedically dramatic pout. Much to her dismay it only made him laugh harder, as did her ardent efforts to keep the pout on her face as flickered into a smile. Eventually she gave up and tried to cover up her laughing with a scoff. “You’re the worst.”

“Uh!” He leaned back aghast, a hand dramatically perched on his chest. “I’m the worst!?!” He made his voice all teary like it was the most upsetting thing he had ever heard and he was about to go cry for days.

Marinette knew it was all a ruse… but it worked because now she felt bad. “Ugh, no you’re not.” She pushed at his chest playfully, her eyes avoiding his face as she mumbled, “you’re the best or whatever...” When she did finally look at him again his confident smirk made her immediately regret giving in so easy.

“...”

“...”

“No u.”

“...”

How eloquent.


End file.
